Welcome to the ladies first edition! Ahh, It feels great to be back! Thursday came way too quick! Thank goodness I kind of have a day off (emphasis on the KIND OF..) from my busy, busy schedule to write to my fellow fans and hip hop enthusiasts! Totally missed you guys by the way! How the hell are ya?! As for me, Working a regular job and my extraordinary job at IMKING clothing is killin me, but well worth every minute!!! Speaking of my new job, yesterday I was at the AGENDA tradeshow on behalf of IMKING! Stay tuned for a write up and recap of my lovely afternoon on IMKING.com and make sure you cop a few tee’s & tanks while you’re there too! Follow me on twitter & instagram @crytalhopedlp to experience a day in the life of yours truly!

Anywho, enough about me!

Lets kick this page off with a good ol message from Mr. Tony Acero!

It is the month of August, people, and 2012 is rapidly coming to an end. August promises a lot of…well, nothing in terms of music or otherwise. The biggest release coming up this month is probably 2 Chainz‘s album, which I’ll have a review of for ya. Speaking of reviews, I was able to check out Rick Ross’sGod Forgives, I Don’t this past weekend and although there was a beautiful verse from Andre 3000 there was little else. Check out the full review HERE if you’re interested. In the interest of keeping things interesting, August will be full of themed columns. This week, we’re going to be all about the ladies, and rightfully so since there’s another big event in August that’s going down. More about it below, but this month we will crown the Hip Hop Hottie of 2012! Details below! Anyways, enough talkin, let’s get to the news.

– Lil Wayne recently went public with his decision to put rap on the “backburner” and focus more on skating. Considering the work he has put out, I’m ok with it…

– Asher Roth has changed the name of his album due to unwanted comparisons to Frank Ocean. Because they are so much alike.

– Snoop Dogg has changed his name to Snoop Lion after claiming he was the reincarnation of Bob Marley. Cute, Snoop. Real cute.

– Waka Flocka’s craziest party experience was at a skating rink, pissing in his own shoe. This boy needs to get out more…

Drake Wants Aaliyah

When Aaliyah died, I was 15. All I knew was that she was hot, and she wanted me to rock the boat. As I grew, I realized how impactful this girl was, not to me, but to the hip hop genre. I know people to this day that live by her music and praise it to the highest degree. I am not saying they are wrong, because the girl was powerful and really cute. Moreover, she wasn’t afraid to experiment, and although you listen to her now and you can see traces of her inspiration everywhere, she was something fresh in the 90’s. Her last album was a posthumous one in 2001, and outside of a documentary in 2011, anything regarding Aaliyah has been relatively quiet…until now.
Low End Theory favorite, Drake is reportedly slated to executive produce her second posthumous album as well as be a guest star on one of the tracks. Let’s eliminate the distaste for posthumous albums – more often only being a shell of the former artist than an actual representation of one – and ask what, exactly, Drake has produced to obtain this particular position. I’m not one to say that he is leaching off of the fame of Aaliyah, because he really doesn’t need to. Boy’s got money. But I do have to question the entire reasoning behind this at all. To my knowledge, Aaliyah didn’t really have a large back catalog of work, and more often than not, anything left on the cutting floor was there for a reason. Maybe Drake really likes her (and the tattoo on his back is probable evidence for such a claim) but I see no reason for this whatsoever.

Your Turn: Is a second posthumous Aaliyah album needed? Is Drake the right person to Exec Produce?Nicki Minaj Tweetin

Two pieces of news has Nicki using Twitter to right apparent wrongs, and in both cases she comes off looking like she doesn’t really know what her camp is doing. First, we have Azealia Banks tweeting to her fans, “I got invited to tour with Nicki Minaj in Europe but I cant go because I have to finish my album during that time. :(“ to which Nicki replied with a simple, “#ManTheseBitchesDelirious”. Hilarious response aside, Azalea had one final retort, claiming, @AZEALIABANKS: I could be really unprofessional and post emails between ur manager and my booking agent but I won’t.” I’m not here to say who is right or wrong, but it appears that either Azealia is cleverly using Twitter and Nicki as a marketing tool, or Nicki hasn’t the slightest idea what is going on with the people that plan her shit. I would assume the former, since there’s really not much press from Banks jumping on Nicki’s back seemingly out of nowhere. It wasn’t an insulting tweet that Banks put out, more of a “damn, that sucks” moment that was quickly – and rudely – shut down by Nicki Minaj. Before the second news story that came out, I wasn’t so quick to shoot down Nicki’s response, but considering it’s a similar situation, I’m not so sure.

Yesterday, a report came out that claims Nicki was supposed to show up at a nightclub in Texas, and didn’t show up after allegedly being paid $30,000 for the appearance. Once again, Nicki went to Twitter to notify fans of the “mistake. No after party tonight barbz. S/O (shout out) to the promoters who sold tickets under false pretenses though. To refute this claim, the owner of the nightclub, Matt Cislo, spoke with the local news station and said, We looked at their (promoter’s) contracts, the wire transfer, we had seen everything; that’s why we went through with the show. From my understanding, she was outside, she had shown up, her security had done a walkthrough and she just decided not to come in. Again, I don’t know who is right or wrong here, but it seems that these are two instances in which Nicki’s camp seemed to have planned something without her knowing or neglecting to inform her. This is an issue that a person at her level simply shouldn’t be going through, and it’s not the first time the accusations have been thrown her way. Shape up, Nicki…

H.W.A. – Eat It

Before Nicki Minaj shitted on em, before Khia talked about her neck and her back, before Trina requested us to Slip and Slide, there were three females who were every bit as derogatory and raunchy as our favorite ladies of today. They were called Hoes With Attitude, and hardly made a splash in the hip hop industry. What they did do, however, was use nastiness to the fullest extent, proving that it’s no new feat in Hip Hop. Songs such as “Eat It,” “Little Dick,” and “Funk Me” are just small samples of what made rapper Eazy-E interested in them. So much, in fact, that he would sign the three to help him out on his diss track towards Snoop And Dre, even after a bulk of their first album disses E, specifically. This isn’t one of those moments where I implore you to reach back to the past and enjoy what it had to offer. No, instead this is a moment of reflection and realization that the more things change, the more they stay the same…haha.

Welcome to the hottest section of the column! Earlier this week, I was sittin outside in the hot sun, reading a book and listening to Lux Aeterna when a group of lovely young ladies walked by. I immediately recalled the scene in the film A Beautiful Mind when John Nash pretty much plays elimidate with the ladies at the bar and highlights the hot one. I quickly did the same as they walked by and realized that it’s been a long time since I’ve done any sort of contest with the hotties that I know and love. As it stands, the reigning champion is Ashlee Arika who has yet to even receive her gift from the last contest. (Sorry, Ash!!)

Here’s the breakdown of this contest, ok. The first THREE weeks of August, we will have a triple threat showdown of former hotties. The winner of each week will then go head to head (to head) on the fourth week of August with the last week crowning the winner. Who decides the winner? Why you do, of course!! There’s a poll, so you don’t have to drop a comment or anything, just vote and done dada!

In case you were wondering what the ladies are fighting for – aside from notoriety of being the Hip Hop Hottie of the Year, they are also fighting for a $100 gift certificate to a store (online or otherwise) of their choosing AND two movie tickets! Sure, it may not sound like much but this is coming from The Low End Theory Budget and…it’s slim, alright.

Here I am, second week in as the writer for Low End Theory’s Douche of the Week and as expected their is a plethora of douches to choose from this week. It was a hard decision, but we had to go with a lesser known in the Hip-Hop industry, female rapper Khia. You may know Khia as the one-hit wonder behind the track “My Neck, My back”, or you may recall her short stint as a cast member of VH1’s female MC competition, Ms. Rap Supreme. Or if you’re big on social media you may have taken notice of her monthly vlogs where she roast more relevant celebrities starting from A-Z. Well this time the joke is on Khia. It was recently reported that the Tampa native rapper is currently under investigation for welfare fraud. That’s right, the woman who boast on every track about how much paper she has is actually collecting that paper from us tax payers. To top things off its also alleged that her two teenage sons are receiving benefits as well. I guess Khia was not lying in one of her track Remember Me where she exclaims, “And the kids is eatin’ shrimp from store.” This whole story reminds me of the time when MTV cameras followed Wu-Tang rapper Ol’ Dirty Bastard to the liquor store as he hopped out the chauffeured limousine with his litter of children to cash his gov’ment check (see YouTube). However, every antic done by ODB had a comical relief to it. We just sort of all just accepted that that’s who the guy was and he knows no different. But for Khia we’ll show no mercy. See I have somewhat of a minor personal beef with Khia myself. While the rest of the world has ignored her existence for the past couple of years I have not only supported but shared her material with others. If it wasn’t for me many people would have believed that silly rumor that was birthed during the tenure of her first tracks release that she had died from AIDS. So I’m putting out another offer which I’d offered to Paris Jackson in last weeks piece. This offer would see that she receives redemption for her trespasses and have her name erased from the book of Douches. My request is that she unblock me from Twitter. Yes, that’s all it takes Khia. Go to my twitter page @joejpaige and hit the unblock button. See I respect your hustle and think you have more skills than a lot of the females currently in the game. But I will never support you again if you treat the only fans you do have the way you do.

For as long as anyone can remember, hip hop has been the foundation of a revolutionary movement which changed the lives and styles of many. Upon its uprising brave, young, intelligent women took part in showing the world why we’re never just a pretty face. Females took control, and took over hip hop with bars that were ready to knock any man off his feet – and no, not simply due to lust. When I speak of anything having to do with women and hip hop, I ultimately mean the true diamonds in the rough…the ladies of the 90’s. Now before any accusations fly my way, it’s what I grew up with. Being a Lauryn Hill fan (as we all know) is what inspired me to be who I am today: powerful, elegant, and intelligent.

It was an inspirational movement brought fourth and followed by many women. Through the years, the golden era sadly tinged as we reach today’s female music scene. Aside from very few female artists (Jean Grae, Santigold, etc) The fresh talent brought fourth today lacks that unique inspirational feeling, and the female emcee community has become somewhat like a ghost town (in my perspective). Rather than teaching an element of self-respect, women today emphasize superficial, meaningless messages for our generation to follow. Props to them for breaking through the tough industry with hard work & dedication, but that’s all I think I can credit them for. Although I’m sure there are plenty a ton of unheard voices, I’m waiting on someone to bring back what being a woman stands for! Real female emcees, stand up! This one’s for you!